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Meanwhile, ‘On the contrary’

Restaurant sales peaked on Friday. On the contrary, the restaurant gained its lowest earnings on Sunday.

If you are contrasting two things that are both true, do not use on the contrary (more…)

Comparing crash landings!

In this post we take a look at some nice language comparing two crash landings in which all passengers and crew survived! (full news story here). (more…)

Seeing clearly in IELTS Task 1

It is clearly seen that unemployment fell gradually throughout the period.

This is like a supermarket putting a sign next to some peanuts saying “This product contains peanuts.” (more…)

Contrasting while and meanwhile for contrast

The amount of time children spent watching TV remained stable, meanwhile the amount of time they spent using computers increased dramatically.

In this post we contrast while and meanwhile in terms of grammatical usage and their usefulness as contrast signals.

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The art of which?

The arts perhaps bring balance and harmony which the arts are not just what you see but what you make others see.

This is potentially sophisticated. You need: (more…)

Opinion in IELTS Task 2 Introductions

Some people argue that taking a year break causes hesitation to continue study permanently. However, many people claim that taking a gap year between finishing high school and starting university studies is beneficial.

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Global warming cause effect

Climate change is a depressing topic, but it provides us with a rich source of cause effect language that we can borrow and use in our IELTS speaking and writing.

Some world leaders continue to deny that human activity is to blame for global warming, but the following text argues that humans are in fact largely responsible.

The text features some quite sophisticated cause effect signals. Try the gapfill and be sure to review alternative answers mentioned in the answer key (available after submitting answers). (more…)

‘Compared to’ instead of ‘rather than’

Cities offer larger salaries to people rather than small towns.

Here the comparison is between ‘salaries’ and ‘small towns’. The writer is saying that cities offer people large salaries and do not offer them small towns. Hmm. I would be quite happy if someone gave me a small town! (more…)

As much uncountable as possible!

These days gadgets do not consume power as much as they used to.

This should read: (more…)

Such as this and that

There are many factors that can contribute to failure such as students do not manage their time well, or they are just lazy.

In this example, such as is followed by independent clauses whereas it should be followed by noun phrases: (more…)